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Settlement chronology on river terrace landforms: A New Zealand case study
Author(s) -
Jones Kevin L.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
geoarchaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1520-6548
pISSN - 0883-6353
DOI - 10.1002/gea.3340050304
Subject(s) - radiocarbon dating , terrace (agriculture) , landform , chronology , human settlement , alluvium , archaeology , period (music) , geology , settlement (finance) , geography , physical geography , paleontology , physics , world wide web , computer science , acoustics , payment
Since the first occupation of New Zealand by Polynesians 1000 years B.P., there have been three major phases of sedimentation in river valleys. These occurred in broad periods of 700 to 600 years B.P., 450 to 300 years B.P., and from 1880 to the present. This offers a useful opportunity to develop a field procedure for rapidly setting maximum ages for pre‐European settlements on river terraces. Radiocarbon dates confirm the value of the procedure. Fortified settlements on alluvium in the New Zealand North Island East Coast area date to the period after about 450 years B.P., in a chronological pattern similar to that elsewhere in New Zealand. the generalized phases of terrace age are not always easily applied to particular field situations and the real advantages of the method lie in the provision of approximate dates for surface surveys of settlement pattern.